Former LHS Telekommunikation GmbH & Co. KG, is now a fully integrated part of

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

. From 28 January 2011, the

brand is used for all billing and customer care solutions of the company.

History

LHS, originally founded as LHS Specifications GmbH in 1990 in Dietzenbach,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, was established by a team of former

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

group engineers and managers, including Hartmut Lademacher, Dr. Joachim Hertel, and Dr. Rainer Zimmermann. The company name, LHS, stands for Lademacher und Hertel Software. Hartmut Lademacher served as the founding CEO and was instrumental in shaping the company’s early direction and international expansion. The company entered the market with a self-developed billing and customer care system known as BSCS ( Business Support and Control System), designed to serve the rapidly growing mobile telecommunications sector. With the global boom in mobile communications during the 1990s, LHS experienced rapid growth alongside its expanding customer base and industry. In 1995, all global activities of the company were consolidated under LHS Group Inc., headquartered in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, USA, marking the start of its emergence as an international player. This move facilitated greater access to international markets and investment. In 1997, LHS Group Inc. went public with an initial public offering (IPO) on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

stock exchange, raising $77 million. Later, the company was also listed on Germany’s Neuer Markt, further increasing its financial visibility and international investor interest. In 2000, LHS Group Inc. was acquired by

Sema Sama (; ) is a Sufi ceremony performed as part of the meditation and prayer practice dhikr. Sama means "listening", while dhikr means "remembrance".During, J., and R. Sellheim. "Sama" Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition. Ed. P. Bearman, T. B ...

for $4.7 billion, signifying the value of its telecom software capabilities. However, in 2001, Sema itself was acquired by

Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...

for $5.2 billion, and the combined entity was renamed SchlumbergerSema. By 2003, Schlumberger decided to refocus on its core oilfield services and equipment business. As a result, SchlumbergerSema’s telecom division was split into two components: a product house focused on software solutions, which retained LHS's product lines, and a systems integration business, which was sold to

Atos Atos SE is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company with headquarters in Bezons suburb of Paris, France, and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communicat ...

Origin for $1.5 billion. In 2004, the LHS product house was acquired by LHS Beteiligungs AG, an investment company owned by Hartmut Lademacher, and

General Atlantic General Atlantic, legal main entity General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. T ...

, LLC, an investment firm that included original LHS Group shareholders. The acquisition marked a return to independent operations and reaffirmed the leadership's commitment to the telecom software space. LHS was then converted into a stock corporation in August 2006 and went public again in October 2006 on the German Prime Standard under the ticker LHS400. In June 2007,

, the Swedish telecom giant, acquired 75.1% of LHS’s shares for $420 million and launched a public offer for the remaining shares.. During the period between 2007 and 2010, LHS remained mostly separated organization but part of Ericsson Group. By February 2010, Ericsson completed the acquisition of all outstanding shares , delisting LHS from the German Stock Exchange, and making it a wholly owned subsidiary. Since then, LHS has been fully integrated into Ericsson’s global operations, continuing to contribute to its billing and customer care technology portfolio, BSCS continues to exist as a product renamed as Ericsson Billing.

Products and awards

LHS main product is Business Support and Control System BSCS, an end-to-end rating, billing, interconnect and customer care system for telecommunication operators which is used widely till this day on a global level due to the large market share that it acquired during the early 2000s (more than 100 telecom operators) and their latest release under LHS was BSCS iX. LHS was awarded "Best Billing or Customer Care Solution" by the GSM Association (

GSMA The GSM Association (GSMA) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit trade association that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide. More than 750 mobile operators are full GSMA members and a further 400 companies in the bro ...

) in Cannes in 2005, received the Frost & Sullivan "Stratecast Global Investment of R&D Resources to Address Core Billing Needs" Award in 2007 and won the IIR World BSS Award for its "Overall Best Contribution to BSS" in London in 2005, 2006, and 2008. Furthermore, the company was awarded "Most Effective Customer Facing Project" in 2009 at the BSS Summit and the "Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award" in 2010.

International Locations and Offices

* Germany ** LH Specifications GmbH *** Theodor-Heuss-Ring 52, 63128 Dietzenbach ** LH Specifications GmbH ** LHS Group ** Sema-lhs Verwaltungs GmbH ** SchlumbergerSema Management GmbH ** Atos Origin ** LHS Aktiengesellschaft *** 36 Otto-Hahn Straße, 63303

Dreieich Dreieich () is a town in the Offenbach district in the of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and is located roughly south of downtown Frankfurt am Main. With a population of more than 40,000 ...

** LHS Telekommunikation GmbH & Co. KG ** Ericsson *** Herriotstraße 1, 60528

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

* Brazil ** LHS do Brasil *** Marketplace Towers,

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

*** World Trade Center São Paulo, São Paulo ** SchlumbergerSema *** Birmann 12, Av. Alexandre Dumas, São Paulo ** Atos Origin *** CPD Phillips, Rua Itapaiuna, São Paulo ** LHS Americas *** Dumas Tower, Av. Alexandre Dumas, São Paulo ** LHS, Part of Ericsson Group *** Corporate Plaza, Av. Alexandre Dumas, São Paulo ** Ericsson *** Centro Ericsson, Vila Guilherme, São Paulo *** Corporate Time, Jardim das Perdizes, São Paulo * USA ** LHS Group, Inc. *** 6 Concourse Pkwy, Ste 2700,

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

30328 * Kuala Lumpur * Madrid, Spain

Former URL Links

* Original LHS group website: www.lhsgroup.com * New LHS Systems website: www.lhs-systems.comhttps://web.archive.org/web/20071003114847/http://www.lhs-systems.com/

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ericsson completes brand migration of LHS
Ericsson Software companies of Germany 1997 initial public offerings 2000 mergers and acquisitions